View full sizeKevin Mannix in 2009.Ross William Hamilton / The Oregonian

CORRECTION: The Oregon War Veterans Association contributed $2,500 in 2008 to John Kroger's
campaign for attorney general. A story in Tuesday's Metro section listed the
wrong elective office for the campaign.

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Oregon's Attorney General's office has asked a Marion County judge to force former gubernatorial candidate Kevin Mannix and his affiliates to cooperate in the state's lawsuit against a prominent veterans non-profit. In response, Mannix said he and his organizations are willing to produce the documents sought by the state, but seek to shield internal discussions involving political advocacy.

The state sued Oregon War Veterans Association in 2011, accusing the group and its director of misusing donations to circumvent tax and campaign finance laws. Since then, it has sought documents related to interactions between the association, its director Greg Warnock, Mannix and a variety of Mannix-controlled organizations. The state says the non-profit accepted contributions intended to help veterans and diverted them for personal use or to benefit Mannix's political campaigns. The Justice Department believes that the veterans' group funneled $1.1 million to Mannix's for-profit organizations, his campaigns and his non-profits.

"The state has been extremely patient with the Mannix organizations," the attorney general's office says in the motion it filed earlier this month. "In contrast, the Mannix organizations have exploited professional courtesies, made unfulfilled promises and disregarded the rule of civil procedure."

Mannix said his lawyer would file a response, but denied that he and his affiliates were uncooperative. "We tried to negotiate an agreement on a protective order," he said in a phone conversation Monday. The state's lawyers, he said, "have been just as slow."

“We’ve been working with them in good faith,” said Tyler Smith, the lawyer for the Mannix organizations, including Oregon Anti-Crime Alliance Foundation and Common Sense for Oregon Inc. “There are not really any big objections” to providing the documents, said Smith, who said the groups merely want the state to narrow its request to more manageable proportions.

Tucked in the middle of the documents filed this month by the state are some of the complaints the state has fielded since suing Oregon War Veterans Association. "2 million I gave him because Kevin said he was a legitimate special charity that could take 501(c)3 money. He lied or was misinformed. I will now have to pay taxes on at least part of that 2 million," reads one February 2011 complaint to the attorney general's office. The state, without identifying the contributor, noted "that donor made contributions to the defendant corporations totaling $2,075,000."

The contributor's name is redacted in the state's documents.

The state's filing also includes a chain of emails beginning with an April 30, 2010 message from a Mannix employee to Mannix, saying "Greg Warnock has called and is hoping you know who he can beg, borrow or steal $10,000 from to make payroll. He says his deadline was a month ago."

In response, Mannix suggested a person whose name was blacked out in the filing "could be asked to send them (OWVA) $15,000 'out of the blue.' It could be a personal a personal or business contribution." The message went on to suggest a different contribution from another person whose name was blacked out in the documents filed this month. "He is a defense contractor who is a friend and who will NOT contribute to my political stuff but who said recently he'd consider a significant contribution to OWVA."

On May 24, 2010, the file shows, Mannix sent Warnock a check for $25,000 made out to the Oregon War Veterans Association.

But beyond those few documents -- plus the acknowledgement that Mannix paid Warnock $500 for a Glock handgun from Warnock's personal collection -- the state told Marion County Circuit Judge Dennis Graves that the groups have resisted subpoenas and requests for information.

Mannix said it's no secret that he's supported the veterans association and that the association has contributed to some of his causes over the years. "I've been known to ask people to donate to the war veterans," he said. "We were very strong advocates working together."

When then-Attorney General John Kroger sued Oregon War Veterans in 2011, the organization fired back by saying Kroger was a "political ambitious bully" who, with his staff, has "made up evidence, helped Kroger's political allies, and bullied witnesses into false testimony."

Yet Oregon War Veterans contributed $2,500 to Kroger's 2008 campaign for governor attorney general, tax records show. That same year, the group contributed $60,000 to Mannix's unsuccessful campaign for governor.

A similar issue, about whether Oregon War Veterans’ documents were public records that could be disclosed to outsiders, was at the center of a federal lawsuit filed by Oregon War Veterans against Kroger and the state in October 2010. That suit was dismissed in April 2011.

While the Oregon War Veterans Association appears to be inactive -- and Mannix said he believes "it's pretty much gone away" -- the organization made news several times for its efforts to benefit veterans. In 2009, it paid for about 105 Oregon National Guard soldiers to fly home for Christmas from Wisconsin, where they had been stranded before deploying to Afghanistan. And the group also helped pay for a team of disabled Oregon veterans to attend the Paralympic Games in Vancouver, B.C. in the spring of 2010.